Veteran ready to take supporting role

Veteran Australian rally driver Ed Ordynski is prepared to play second fiddle to his championship-chasing team-mate Juha Kangas in the season-ending Rally of Melbourne next month in a bid to help the Finn take out the title for their Mitsubishi Ralliart T

Veteran ready to take supporting role

24 August 2010Michael Lynch

Veteran Australian rally driver Ed Ordynski is prepared to play second fiddle to his championship-chasing team-mate Juha Kangas in the season-ending Rally of Melbourne next month in a bid to help the Finn take out the title for their Mitsubishi Ralliart Team.

But the 48-year-old South Australian, who is still recovering from a massive crash in the last round of the Australian Rally Championship in NSW, yesterday warned his rivals that he was not yet prepared to concede that his best days were behind him.

Ordynski, a multiple Australian champion, said that given the full support of his factory team there was no reason why he could not again challenge for a championship against drivers who were 20-25 years his junior.

"My performance has not been as strong this year as last year," Ordynski said yesterday. "Some of that is down to bad luck, like punctures at the wrong time, but I have just not made as a good a job of the car as Juha has.

"I have been in the sport for 30 years, and at this stage of the championship I am not going to be a prima donna; I have got to be a good No. 2 (while he is going for the title).

"At the rate our sport is going now you would have to say that a bloke of 25-30 should be faster than someone my age, but that does not always have to be the case. I am not saying what we did this season was neglect the senior player (driver), but I think there was a feeling of 'let's just give Ed the car and he will be all right'.

"But to be competitive in this championship now you have to give a driver with 30 years' experience the same nurturing, structure and support that you would give a 25-30-year-old driver."

Ordynski, who was in hospital for several days after the accident in NSW, has virtually completed his physical recovery and says he has no mental hang-ups about getting into a rally car again.

"Late last week I was 100 percent, but I trained a bit hard and overdid things and got a muscle strain. But there's no reason why it (my shoulder) should not be 100 per cent for driving competitively.

"Mentally I feel fine about it - there were a lot of people in the hospital who were a lot worse than me."

Ordynski wrecked his Evo Lancer rally car in the accident, and his team is busily rebuilding an older Evo 7 model -- the car he used in the Rally of Canberra last year -- for the Rally of Melbourne, which takes place in the first weekend of October.

"Building a new car is difficult, and there have been some hold-ups. But it should be ready for the test day in Victoria next Tuesday," Ordynski said.